I certainly hope not! That’s what I told techie bro when he raised the possibility of a phishing trick after I unsuccessfully tried many many times to purchase online for Mom’s Bacolod-Manila round trip ticket via Cebu Pacific Air’s online ticketing system last week.

I already used two Visa Electron cards and one MasterCard but to no avail, I got declined status, i.e. failed transaction, for them. Thankfully, our Prague Connection did the ticket purchase the next day using his Mastercard account and the transaction was accepted.

The last week of April was quite busy for the airline site as they were having an ongoing seat sale (from April 25-30 for domestic and international flights), applicable for travel period from June 1 to August 31 from all hubs – Manila, Cebu, Clark and Davao. The ticket prices were incredibly low. Imagine getting a roundtrip Bacolod-Manila ticket for only Php1375! That’s even less than the regular one-way ticket.

With such a huge surge in online traffic sales, I bet I was not the only one who experienced some errors with my booking. My techie bro who owns the MasterCard account even called up his bank. He was advised that nothing’s wrong at their end and it could be Cebu Pacific’s online system. Thankfully, no payment reflected on his account for the denied transaction unlike what happened to him before when he got an error during his online travel ticket purchase from Cebu Pacific website and his bank was charged even if no ticket was bought. Ugh.

Buying airline travel ticket via online sites can be such a convenience but it’s so risky as well! All these failed transactions could make one worry about online security concerns such as phishing particularly with confidential credit card details.

Two failed transactions in a row!

With last week’s seat sale, Cebu Pacific should have prepared their system to be robust enough for more traffic especially since the promo was only for few days. I hope they would have another travel promo to compensate for the failed online transactions. I already spent so much time trying to get my payment through.

Incidentally, we were able to buy online Cebu Pacific etickets, without any hassles, early this year for our roundtrip flights from Bacolod to Cebu. It’s just frustrating how their system was acting so weird and unreliable during their ongoing seat sale. I was already thinking of buying Mom’s ticket over the counter via travel agent. Thankfully, Prague Connection’s transaction got through and now Mom’s eticket is confirmed and already bought.

Have you encountered similar experience about failed online transactions? Are you confident and comfortable doing shopping and purchasing transactions via the Internet? Do share your ideas and reactions in the comments section!

12 Comments

tony

Posted May 5, 2009 at 12:55 PM

oh I have far worst experience. Two years ago, I got an error when doing online transaction on Cebu Pacific site purchasing a domestic flight in Philippines. So, I tried to do again the transaction after like 20 minutes. I was happy it was successful on the second try. But to my surprise, I got 2 different receipt both for the failed and successful transactions.

I called Cebu Pacific and they say they could not return the money, but promised to credit it back to my account which would take like 30 – 60 days. Nah… I called again to follow up, but they seem not to remember about my case. I wasted only money on long distance call.

Until now my money for “DOUBLE” ticket was not refunded. How could the Cebu Pacific website allow for a passenger (with all the same personal details including address and card used to purchase) to be issued a ticket on the same plane flight. Tsk! I hope they fixed their online system which is bug littered.

If you know someone from Cebu Pacific.. I’ll show proof of purchase and payment for “DOUBLE” ticket issued on the same flight. The refund promised never came and I felt like being robbed on my face.

Tony, that’s just so bad! They could have refunded you for the other ticket. How much did the ticket cost? Was it a Bangkok-Manila flight? This is why I’m so apprehensive of doing transactions in their website.

i got doubled bill by philippine airlines before, I had two $1100+ bill for LA-Manila round trip fare. But they were quick in correcting it when I complained about the double bill, I guess, we just have to pay attention to the details in our bill, otherwise, we may be paying for something we did not use at all.

Hi Betchai! Thankfully PAL corrected their mistake. Good thing you noticed the double bill, it could have been such a huge waste of $$$.

tony

Posted May 7, 2009 at 5:46 PM

it was a domestic flight Manila-Cebu-Manila.

Alex Wilson

Posted May 8, 2009 at 8:41 PM

I will refuse to ever do business with these crooks again.
I was purchasing a ticket online, for a friend.
MNL to CEB.
The web site was very ambiguous regarding my transaction. After entering all the information, it said transaction was pending. After about 30 min, the screen changed and “pending” went to “closed”,
(who knows what that would mean) but all details of check in instructions, etc. were still there.

My girlfriend went to a travel agent friend who called them. They told her that my card had been declined.
I called Cebu Pacific the next morning, which cost me 200 pesos in waiting time alone.
The girl came on the phone and said that I was declined because my Visa card was a “debit” card and that they do not accept debit cards, only credit cards.
Well, this makes about as much sense as saying black is white.
I use my card all the time in ATM machines here in the Philippines, and never declined.
To add insult to injury, I went to my online banking
for that card (issued through a bank in Europe).
There was a transaction sucking the amount for that ticket from my account.
I was ready to file charges against Cebu Pacific for credit card fraud, but one week later, the funds had been returned to my account.
IT was still a very aggravating and embarrassing
experience. NEVER AGAIN

Ceblogger:
I’m still hesitant about Cebu Pacific. I checked out PAL Econolight yesterday and the rates are comparable to Cebu Pacific’s GoLite fares… but with this promo, hmmm… I am also scheduled to go to Manila by July so I might purchase a ticket before the promo ends, and pray at the same time that nothing goes wrong!

MANOF

Posted June 7, 2009 at 7:23 PM

WELL I WILL TO COMMENT ON CEBU PACIFIC SERVICE VERY POOR AND BAD SERVICE TO THEIR COUSTOMER, PLEASE YOU GUYS SHOULD FIND A WAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SO CALLED TICKITING BOOKING, IF NOT THE SO CALL CEBU PACIFIC WILL LOSE ALL THEIR CLIENTS,

F.

Posted September 5, 2009 at 1:56 AM

It must be easier buying a ticket with the worst airline in Africa.
Cebu Pacific is a joke!

I’ve just experienced the worst banking system in my entire life. I tried to purchase a ticket with cebupacific website and use my bdo debit card. I tried it twice and it both failed. To my surprise they have charged my twice as well on my BDO account. I called up BDO and they told me not to use my debit card for internet transactions since its not safe and its not ready yet. It will also take 45days in their end to credit back the amount. What the hell they are doing…

jules

Posted November 14, 2009 at 7:49 AM

Please do not try to use BDO Debit Card with Cebu Pacific website as it doesnt work. My friend who works with 5J told me that they receive lots of calls from customers who have purchased online tikets thru BDO debit card, transaction declined but it was deducted on their account. He admits that there is a problem with link with BDO.

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